Pin: bishop to d7
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 1265 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
General method: before you move, list the forcing candidates — every check, every capture, every direct threat — and calculate those first. The solution to a tactic is almost always among them.
Position on the board
White: king e5, bishop f5, pawn c2 b4 g4.
Black: king b5, rook c6, pawn a6.
5 white and 3 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 58.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 6 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on e5, the black king on b5.
It is White to move on move 58, with 14 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e, f, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
58. Bd7 Kb6 59. Bxc6
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to d7 keeps the pressure (+7.2).
- Well found: bishop to c6 (+9.3).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kb6, then Bxc6 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 58. Bd7 — bishop to d7
- Kb6 — king to b6
- 59. Bxc6 — bishop to c6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
Endgame tactic
Tactics live in the endgame too — strike while material is scarce.
Tactics do not retire when the queens come off: forks, pins and double attacks live on in the endgame. With so little material left, every tactical loss is almost always decisive. The signs are the usual ones — undefended pieces, king and piece on one line, a pawn about to promote. Even in a "technical" ending, scan for a shot before every move, both yours and your opponent's.
Trapped piece
The attacked piece has no safe square — it is caught.
Trapping a piece means the attacked piece has no safe square left — it simply perishes. Do not chase it around; build a cage instead: cut off the escape squares with pawns and pieces first, and attack last. The typical victim has wandered deep into your camp or is stuck at the edge of the board, where its mobility is tiny. And always check the way home for your own raiders — or the trapped piece will be yours.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 009
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